John M. Broder has a much better assessment than most of illegal immigration and its effect on U.S. citizens. One stunning claim in the accompanying chart:

actions against businesses that employ illegal immigrants (here, warnings of impending fines) by 2004 had virtually stopped

This should be a scandal, proof of the administration's bad faith on the issue. Will Dems step up to the plate, or do they see themselves as advocates for illegal immigrants, even if that means a look-the-other-way policy towards their employers? Current law, which actually forbids businesses from scutinizing employees they suspect to be illegal (beyond a required cursory check of easily-forged documents), suggests the alliance pro-corrupt-business Republicans form with pro-illegal-immigration Dems.

The justification of this law is that it is necessary to protect Hispanic citizens from discrimination. That's not an unreasonable concern, but there's a better way: implement status verification that could be applied to all employees, without regard to their race, such as the SS# verification recommended by the Jordan Commission in 1994.